The Ministry of Education and Science has issued a call on awarding 20 full scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees to students willing to study Ottoman Turkish language abroad.

Issuing calls for three years in a row, the Education Ministry so far has awarded fellowships to nine candidates. The call is open until Sept. 30. Scholarships cover all costs, including university fees and accommodation in the country where candidates will study.

Spiro Ristovski, Deputy Education Minister, said he expected candidates to show more interest this year. Under the criteria listed in the call, upon graduation the candidates will be employed in state institutions that own documents in Ottoman Turkish, such as the State Archive of Macedonia, the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Institute of National History.

“For Macedonia it is extremely important to have experts in Ottoman Turkish, because there are a myriad of documents in Macedonia and in archives in Turkey that contain cadastre or historical data about the period when Macedonia was under Ottoman rule,” Ristovski said adding it was expected a team of up to 20 people with proficiency in Ottoman Turkish to be instrumental in translating these documents.